Unparalleled women’s basketball league premieres Friday | Real Time Headlines

Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women’s professional basketball league that launches Friday, is both a major test and an opportunity for the women’s game to raise its profile in the United States.

The league, co-founded by WNBA superstars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, has announced deals with more than a dozen sponsors and raised $35 million in funding. Collier told CNBC the league has shown it has “tremendous” potential and opportunity.

“When you invest in athletes and women’s sports, I think we’ve seen a return,” she said. “This is just the beginning for us. This is the first year that we’ve been able to do this, so we’re very excited about the future.”

The game will be broadcast Warner Bros. Discovery The TNT sports platform has a multi-year media rights agreement. Lee Berke, president and CEO of sports consulting firm LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, said television ratings not only affect overall viewership but also demographics.

“What you’re looking for is a younger audience, both male and female, and what you’re looking for is the size of the audience,” Burke told CNBC. “Obviously, there’s a lot of hype on day one. You want to see that audience grow throughout the season. continues to expand and grow.”

Here’s what you need to know before Incomparable is first revealed:

Compared to the WNBA, games are played in a 3-on-3 format on a smaller court. They last one hour and are pod delivery It airs Fridays and Mondays on TNT and Saturdays on TruTV. The game can also be streamed on WBD’s Max.

All games will be played at the Mediapro US facility in Medley, a suburb of Miami, Florida. This season takes place during the WNBA offseason and is designed to provide an alternative to overseas competition.

Many WNBA players supplement their income by playing for teams in Russia, China and other countries during the offseason. However, the WNBA collective bargaining agreement Contracts signed in 2020 now stipulate that players will be suspended for the entire season if they do not return from overseas teams in time for training camp. WNBA training camp will begin on April 27.

“It’s trying to fill a gap in the schedule for these players,” said Alex Bazzell, president of Unrivaled and Collier’s husband. “It’s extending the runway of professional basketball.” Tell CNBC.

Invincible will also give many players higher salaries than the WNBA. Bazzell’s salary total exceeds $8 million Tell SB Nation, the average earnings per player this season is about $242,000. Players will also receive equity and revenue shares from the league, which has explain It offers the highest average salary in women’s professional sports league history.

The current minimum annual salary in the WNBA is $66,079, and the maximum for core players is $249,244. Each WNBA team can only designate one player as a core player and earn that amount.

League has 36 Participants This is their first season and they both played in the WNBA last year. There are 15 2024 WNBA All-Stars on the roster, including WNBA first-team honorees Collier, Stewart and Alyssa Thomas. Other notable players include Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner and Angel Reese.

Unrivaled has raised $35 million in seed and Series A funding from a number of high-profile investors. Its supporters include basketball stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Carmelo Anthony, as well as Olympians such as Alex Morgan and Michael Phelps. On January 6, tennis superstar Coco Gauff was announced as its newest investor.

Collier said that while others are now focused on the rise of women’s sports, those in the sports community have long recognized the value of the industry.

“I think people in sports have known this for a long time,” Collier said. “It’s really encouraging to see the support from other athletes. They believe in us so much, so it’s great to see that.”

Collier added that Unrivaled’s corporate partners are aligned with their vision to grow the sport.

“We’ve said for a long time, this is not a charity. This is a huge business opportunity and these brands recognize that,” Collier said. “They’re not just doing it out of good intentions, they really believe in the growth of women’s sports. But they’re also doing it because they know it’s something with a lot of profit potential.”

About a dozen companies have signed sponsorship deals with Unrivaled, including Sephora, State Farm, Wilson, Ally Financial and Samsung. Recently, invincible named Sprite serves as the sponsoring partner of the one-on-one tournament, with Bodyarmor serving as the official sports drink.

“It’s impressive both in terms of the number of sponsors, the quality of sponsors and the fact that there are non-traditional sports sponsors,” Burke said.

TNT Sports’ announcers and studio hosts covering Unrivaled include Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie and two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker.

The debut of “Incomparable” coincides with spike The nation’s interest in women’s sports—basketball in particular.

The WNBA, in particular, is notable for its rookie class led by former college stars Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink and Reese. The league said this broke the historical record Record This season had more than 54 million unique viewers, the highest live audience in 22 years.

According to reports, in last year’s WNBA Finals, the New York Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx in five games, making it the league’s highest-rated championship series in 25 years. ESPN.

Starting next year, the WNBA will expand the Finals format from best-of-five to best-of-seven. The company will also launch a 13th team, the Golden State Valkyries, next season and will add teams in Toronto and Portland, Ore., in 2026.

The WNBA and its players are poised to take advantage of the momentum.

The league can reassess According to previous reports by CNBC, the current 11-year media rights agreement with the WNBA Players Association is worth $2.2 billion after 2028. opt out Current collective bargaining agreement in October. A new agreement that takes effect after next season could provide players with higher wages and more benefits, and the growing attention WNBA athletes receive gives them greater leverage at the bargaining table.

Collier told CNBC that Unparalleled will have a significant impact on the women’s basketball business.

“We’ve seen it expand its territory. Overseas contracts are increasing, other domestic league contracts are increasing,” Collier said. “We’re trying to expand the normal thinking around the business of women’s sports, and you’ll definitely see us pushing for the same thing in the CBA.”

—CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo, Jake Piazza and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.